More About Why We Lie

More About Why We Lie

Hello Wellness Seekers:

In November of 2016 I wrote a post titled, “Why I Lied.” This post continually receives the most comments of all time. I’m happy that it proves to be helpful to me and my readers.

An Essay Blows Me Away

Today, I read a new article that delves into “why we lie” even deeper. Published in last week’s TIME magazine is an essay titled, “How Secrets Keep Us Sick,” by Sarah Levy, the author of Drinking Games. In her essay, Ms. Levy says:

“There’s research that shows that primates evolved the tendency to tell lies to maximize survival, and  2018 study in Memory and Cognition explains [how] false denial can serve as a coping tool for managing shame and guilt.” Levy states, “I was dreadfully uncomfortable in my own skin and desperate to be someone, anyone, else. It seemed natural to alter the truth when my own reality was painful.”

My Reaction

After reading this statement, I was thrown back to the years I lied. Knowing it was a coping tool to survive my abusive father, I feel no shame or guilt. Some may say “it’s just another denial,” but truth be told, I needed this tool to keep living. I believe in the truth now more than ever, and I see how lies can prevent additional abuse and punishment.

Unfortunately, we don’t know this when we’re young and being abused by a “supposed” loved one, because our brains were not developed enough for us to say, “You’re hurting me,” or “Stop touching me.” An abused child’s lament.

My Advice

If you know a child who lies, find out what’s happening to this child. You may save this child’s life.

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle.
Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times.
She survived and shares her experiences and tools with women and men
who have been traumatized.

Think Beyond Your Genes

This article comes from Bruce Lipton’s newsletter, Think Beyond Your Genes. I reprinted it here so you can read what’s happening in our evolution. Some parts may seem creepy, but I can say Mr. Lipton has been right-on on a number of occasions. I hope you enjoy this article as it may change how you think about our future.

Hello Dear Friends, Cultural Creatives & Seekers Everywhere,

Evolution in Process

Crisis ignites evolution. The challenges and crises the world faces today are
signs that change is imminent. We are about to face our evolution. Evolution is a participatory event. It is up to us to change our perceptions of “doom and gloom” into something more positive and encouraging. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said so eloquently, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. To change the world, we must change ourselves first, and furthermore we are being called upon to come together in community and share in a positive vision for humanity as well as Mother Earth.

As practiced in most energy psychology modalities in changing beliefs, it is vital that we focus on what we want, rather than what we don’t want. With that being said, it is also in our best interest to fully understand the crisis we face if we are to learn from it and cultivate a more sustainable reality.
On November 8, 2022, the date of the last U.S. election, I made a life-changing decision… I stopped keeping-up with the news. This life-enhancing behavioral change was done for two main reasons: 1] The new news stories are the same as the old news stories, ones I have heard for decades. The stories remain the same, only the names of the principal characters and their countries of origin have changed. (OK, fact check: I occasionally read the headlines of articles … but do not delve into the text.). 2] Not having any ability to personally change these global issues, why would I waste my valuable life-energy by getting engaged-in, but not being able to respond to, the global chaos we are experiencing.
With all the stories of war, violence, hatred, catastrophes, health crises, etc., I have noticed a complete lack of information on the impending 6th Mass Extinction Event. NASA scientists emphasize that we are facing an “irreversible” collapse of industrial civilization within the next couple of decades. They place the blame on unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution (i.e., 1% of the
population has more wealth than the remaining 99%.)
This extinction story is profoundly important for all of us! Science has recognized that human behavior has precipitated the collapsing of the web of life. Civilization-induced stresses are creating environmental catastrophes that are straining the environment and threatening human extinction. One of the biggest contributors influencing the collapse of civilization is global climate change, erratic weather patterns that are destroying environments and ecosystems around the world.
Climate change is a natural product of the Earth’s evolution, occurring in cycles over thousands of years. However, today, industrial civilization has exacerbated the situation by upending the harmony and balance of Nature . Human behavior has polluted the air, the seas, and the soil, pillaged the Earth’s resources, engaged in cutting down the rain forest, and destroying millions of acres of Nature replacing them with unsustainable monocropping.
Some people question, “Can human civilization can actually upset the Earth’s
ecosystems?” The answer of course is an absolute YES. Sixty years ago during my high school geography class, we were studying the great seas separating Eastern Europe from Western Europe. They were the Aral Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea (illustrated in the map below). To memorize these names, I used a mnemonic, referring to them as the “A-B-C Seas.” However, from satellite images shown below, over 95% of the Aral Sea has disappeared. With the loss of the Aral Sea, fish that fed millions of Europeans, the cities that arose to service that industry, as well as the seaside spa resorts have also disappeared. Considering that data, then Secretary-General of the U.N., Ban Ki-moon, described the drying up of the Aral Sea as one of the planet’s most shocking disasters.
Aral Sea Map
What happened to the Sea? Once the world’s fourth-largest “lake,” the Aral Sea shrunk because the rivers that fed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region. What now remains of the once-robust fishing economy are fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands, with camels standing near the hulks of stranded ships. Furthermore, when the sea began to dry, layers of highly salted
sand left behind were carried by winds as far as Scandinavia and Japan.
Aral Sea 2
Signs of the Evolution
Evolutionary change will only start when we become active participants and stop our fruitless wait for some hero to arise and save us … for we are the heroes we have been looking for! Everyday, human “imaginal cells” are creating order out of the impending chaos. Evolutionary actions at the local level are increasing at a logarithmic rate, and frequently unrecognized by the media.
So, while it appears that nothing is happening on the surface, below there is a
groundswell of change that is about to erupt. This evolutionary upheaval is predicated on the rise of community. A small, yet wonderful, example of communal evolution on the local level was provided in the news story of a New Zealand retirement home that won a sustainability award. They created over 100 gardens on their property. The food fed the members of the home, as well as many others in the neighborhood. The garden work provided a meaningful existence to retirees, enhanced their health and, in fact the health of the community and the environment.
Amid the current global chaos, a new world is emerging like a Phoenix from the ashes, a world based on love rather than fear (based on love rather than fear) and we are its co-creators. We are, each and all, active participants in what will amount to be the greatest of human adventures, for we are on the threshold of an incredible evolutionary event … the emergence of a new super-organism, Humanity.
Dear friends, keep your hearts and minds focused on the beautiful future that lies before us!

With Love and Light,
Bruce

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle. Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times. She survived and shares her experiences and tools with women and men who have been traumatized.

 

New Year / New Blessings

New Year / New Blessings

Hello Wellness Seekers:

I apologize for not posting in a month, but my website wouldn’t let me in. I tried changing my password a billion times — no success. So, I got online and chatted with hosting techs over the past weeks. Finally, today, I found someone to unlock my website. I continue to reign as Queen Bee on this website! I missed you all.

So, how is 2023 looking for you? I’m wishing you all the great blessings of safety and health to you and your loved ones during the year. I have to admit that my New Years started off with a BANG! My Green Bay Packers outshined the MN Vikings. Go Pack. Now we’ll see what happens next week with the Detroit Lions. (I’ve been a Packer fan all of my life since growing up in Wisconsin.)

I was sincerely troubled when I saw what happened to the Buffalo Bills player, Damar Hamlin. My prayers echo the worldwide prayers being sent to him and his family. I’m sending him blessings of health and recovery.

Football is dangerous, and we’re brought to this time and again when a player gets hurt. But I also want to bless the children and women who are abused each day — around the world. These children and women should definitely be called our “Heroes.” I pray for their health and wellbeing and I direct them to my healing trauma wounds found on this website. Please share this website if you know of someone who is trying to to find essential tools to live a new life after trauma.

Be well this year and never give up!

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle. Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times. She survived and shares her experiences and tools with women and men who have been traumatized.

The History of Advent They Don’t Teach You in Schools

The History of Advent They Don’t Teach You in Schools

A traditional advent wreath

[This article was published by the Universal Life Church [email protected]  and posted on November 20, 2022. I thank them for allowing me to reprint this article here.]

Christmas is often seen as a Christian holiday, but when you know the history, you’ll understand why this isn’t so. We need to give our ancestors the right to claim what was created by them. Some people call these ancestors “Pagans,” but I know they were/are our ancestors. I hope this article enlightens you.

“With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, many Americans are now excitedly preparing for the holiday season. Millions of Christians know this season as Advent (from the Latin word meaning “arrival”), where they spend the weeks leading up to Christmas preparing for the Nativity of Christ.

Wreaths, trees, candles, advent calendars… these are all symbols intertwined with Christmas even to non-Christian observers. But did you know they actually have ancient symbolic meanings that go beyond Christianity?

In fact, many of these symbols are, ahem, “borrowed,” and you’ll never guess who from.

Okay, you got it. Pagans (Ancestors). It’s always the pagans.

A Very Pagan Christmas

You might recall that Christmas itself has some distinctly pagan origins, and that many of the modern Christmas traditions can be traced back to ancient Nordic cultures.

Long, long before Christianity, pagans were celebrating the winter solstice and the end of the harvest season. This was called Yule, and many ancient Yule traditions – singing, bonfires, feasting – are still celebrated today. Still, some, like dousing oneself in the blood of sacrificed animals, didn’t make it to the 21st century.

When you think about it, it makes sense that many Advent traditions are lifted from ancient pagan customs. After all, wreaths, trees, and candles make a lot more sense in a pagan context than in a Christian one.

Centuries-Old Symbols

Mistletoe is a great example of this. For centuries, mistletoe was closely associated with the Norse love goddess Frigga. As a gesture of peace, Nordic warriors used to hang a bough of mistletoe and lay down their weapons underneath of it when they came together for peace talks. As you’re surely familiar, we do something slightly different under the mistletoe now – but the core idea lingers!

Many historians also believe the classic Yule log could have some Pagan connections. It’s unclear exactly when or where the tradition was started, but research has shown that prior to the Yule log being brought into the house and burned by German Christians, yule logs were often burned around the solstice as a symbol of the sun’s warmth, and the ashes scattered across fields as the pagan people believed it would increase the abundance of their next harvest.

A traditional advent wreath
A traditional Advent wreath

Another example is the Advent wreath. An iconic Christmas decoration made of fir branches, decorative ribbons, and holly strung together in a circular shape.

Believers place candles on the wreath and light them throughout Advent, symbolizing Christ’s endless and everlasting grace and love.

While Christians have been making wreaths and lighting candles for centuries, this tradition actually traces back to paganism. In the dark, unforgiving Scandinavian winter, pagans would light candles and place them around a wheel in an appeal to the gods for warmer days ahead, particularly around the winter solstice as a plea for the sun to return.

And long before the circle of the wreath came to symbolize Christian eternal life, it was embraced by many pagan people as a symbol of protection. Some historians even believe hung on doors.

So Advent wreaths and Advent candles are taken from ancient pagan traditions. But what about the season’s most recognizable decoration?

An Evergreen Holiday

Sorry, even the iconic Christmas tree isn’t a Christian original. Evergreen trees were used as a winter solstice decoration thousands of years before Christianity, and ancient pagans decorated their temples with fir branches and their homes with fir trees.

Why? Fir trees represented fertility (of both human and earth) to many ancient European cultures, as did the first ‘Christmas tree decorations’ – flowers, nuts, and fruits.

In fact, when you boil it down to the essentials, just about everything was about sex, warmth, or food. Maybe some things never change.

As it turns out, Christmas trees as we know them now didn’t really exist until the 16th century, when German nobility started decorating royal courts with them, complete with a golden leaf on top.

As late as the 1800s, Christmas trees were viewed as a pagan custom by some cultures – including by many people in the United States. That, of course, has changed.

It turns out even gift-giving could have a connection to some ancient faiths! While many link the annual giving of gifts at Christmas to the story of the 3 Wise Men bringing gifts to the infant Jesus, historians have made an even older link with the ancient Roman festival of Siggilaria.

While the festival was originally set up so that people could visit the market to buy small pieces of pottery with candles in them (called sigilla) as an offering to the god Saturn, over time the festival grew and as the Romans became more wealthy they started buying and selling gifts for one another at the Siggilaria market.

Old Gods and the New

And of course, the entire Advent season culminates in Christmas on December 25th. By now, you surely aren’t surprised to learn that even that particular date has some Pagan connections!

December 25th, history teaches us, was initially selected as the date for Christmas each year because it was also the date that many ancient people had for generations celebrated the re-birth of the god of the sun, Sol.

The early Catholic church figured that by sliding in the birth of the Son of God on the same day as the birth of the God of the sun, it would be a cinch to get people to start celebrating the newer Christian holiday. It took a few years and some occasional chastising from early popes, but eventually, most people got the message and transitioned over.

So this Advent season, as you’re hanging the wreath, lighting the candles, and decorating the tree, take a moment to acknowledge how holiday traditions have evolved. These customs we hold so dear grow, change, and even merge with one another over time.

Much has changed during the past millennium, but by the same token, much has also stayed the same – it’s simply been repackaged.”

Seasons Greetings from the Never Give Up Institute!

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle. Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times. She survived and shares her experiences and tools with women and men who have been traumatized. 

In the Beginning There was Chaos

In the Beginning There was Chaos

In the Beginning There was Chaos!

There was nothing but darkness—absolute blackness. No light, no sound, no energy. There were only eternal nights without stars. Many theories have tried to explain the beginning of our universe, so I will begin with explaining the top three: the big bang theory, evolution, and the story of Adam and Eve. These theories lead to my belief that our universe began in trauma and we have come to the decisive moment.

We consider the Big Bang Theory the leading explanation for how our universe began. Through the multitude of discoveries in astronomy and physics, scientists believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that our universe did in fact have a beginning. Somehow, a spark was lit and chaos began. Lightning, explosions, the birth of pristine stars and planets all began at once. Asteroids slamming into each other created atoms of fury and life. The first new day of the universe had begun, but in its wake was destruction and pandemonium. Some scientists believe it took over 13.8 billion years to get where we are today, and our universe is still growing through chaos.

Evolution (also known as the theory of natural selection) is one of the fundamental keystones of modern biological theory. According to an article published on June 7, 2019, by the National Geographic Society:

“The theory of [evolution] natural selection, comprises of organisms who produce more offspring than can survive in their environment. Those that are better physically equipped to survive, grow to maturity, and reproduce. Those that are lacking in such fitness either do not reach an age when they can reproduce or produce fewer offspring than their counterparts. We sometimes sum natural selection as ‘survival of the fittest’ because the ‘fittest’ organisms—those most suited to their environment—are the ones that reproduce more successfully, and are likely to pass on their traits to the next generation.”

Survival of the fittest states that the weak ones die or are devoured by the stronger. “Only the strong survive” is a traumatic proverb.

In the Bible, Adam and Eve are the first human couple created by God on the sixth day of Creation, and are the ancestors of all of humanity. In the perfect setting of the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve they could eat any of the fruit in Eden, but forbade them from eating the fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. Satan transformed himself into a serpent and enticed the couple to eat the fruit. This resulted in God’s banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden. He sent them into a world of hostile beasts, poisonous reptiles, and dangerous weather, casting them into trauma.

Whatever theory you choose to believe, trauma started from our very beginning of time and is a well-known concept of biology and science. Even in religious sectors, they cannot deny that it thrust Adam and Eve into trauma.

This research has led me to the belief that all traumas began at the moment a spark flew and ignited our descent into suffering and pain. With trauma living in our cells, bones, organs, and muscles, it is no wonder why we have a conundrum of ways to treat trauma. Medical professionals use medication, psychiatrists use talk therapy and drugs, and religious orders use prayer and exorcism. All are trying to eliminate the effects of trauma, so much so that healing has become a billion dollar business in America.

I am convinced we can do better. This is why I created Your Moment of T.R.U.T.H. (The Road to Unresolved Trauma). We do not need to spend billions of dollars to heal from chaos and trauma. Put your money in the belief that you can, and will, eliminate stress and depression. The key is to focus on yourself and find the fuel to cope, and even wipe away, your doubts. Believe in healing—it is in your hands.

You can purchase my book and workbook by clicking here.  YMT is available on Kindle.

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle. Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times. She survived and shares her experiences and tools with women and men who have been traumatized.